Thursday, February 24, 2005
India is fertile soil for budget airlines (The Seattle Times)
As Air Deccan Flight 204 soared away from the runway, Ramana Murthy looked out the window and chatted animatedly on his cell phone. Never mind the rules. At 40, the boyish-looking railway contractor was taking his first airplane trip — and his wife, on the other end of the line, was demanding a full report.
"Is good feeling only," he said in faltering English a few minutes later, a broad grin lighting his face. "No fear. Just like sitting on a bus."
Once regarded as the province of tycoons and maharajahs, air travel is taking off in India. A booming economy and the emergence of no-frills service — modeled after that of low-cost U.S. carriers — are opening the skies to middle-class Indians eager for the conveniences of prosperity and globalization.
With Air Deccan offering fares as low as $11 — and other airlines scrambling to catch up — many Indians now have an alternative to the dirty and overcrowded trains that have long been synonymous with travel in this vast nation of more than 1 billion people.
Read more...
- posted by katongking @ 1:29 pm
As Air Deccan Flight 204 soared away from the runway, Ramana Murthy looked out the window and chatted animatedly on his cell phone. Never mind the rules. At 40, the boyish-looking railway contractor was taking his first airplane trip — and his wife, on the other end of the line, was demanding a full report.
"Is good feeling only," he said in faltering English a few minutes later, a broad grin lighting his face. "No fear. Just like sitting on a bus."
Once regarded as the province of tycoons and maharajahs, air travel is taking off in India. A booming economy and the emergence of no-frills service — modeled after that of low-cost U.S. carriers — are opening the skies to middle-class Indians eager for the conveniences of prosperity and globalization.
With Air Deccan offering fares as low as $11 — and other airlines scrambling to catch up — many Indians now have an alternative to the dirty and overcrowded trains that have long been synonymous with travel in this vast nation of more than 1 billion people.
Read more...
- posted by katongking @ 1:29 pm
